Preventative maintenance & Pre MOT check

[Merc220cls]

I’m a great believer of preventative maintenance being an old school mechanic (HGV now retired)

Before every MOT I tend to go overboard with a full brake strip down clean and adjust, replacing where necessary so with my 2004 SL at only 10,000 miles I’ve started my checks in order to be ready for the road again soon.
This weekend I’ve started on the rear brakes and today I had a great degree of difficulty removing the disc. The design is like many cars today being held on with one torx screw and obviously the wheels studs but this one refused to budge. Even after an overnight soak with penetrating fluid it still wasn’t budging.
I have to say it has been one of the most difficult discs to remove with the exception of a Cavalier SRi where I had to smash it to pieces to get it off but in that case I was fitting new discs.
After using a hammer a bit more than I normally would have, the disc finally freed itself from the hub. I reckon this will be the first time it has been removed since it was fitted some 15 years ago.

After de rusting the inner drum section (hand brake) and a full examination, the disc is still like new and the disc pads are still around 9mm. The inner drum brake which is of course the hand brake (foot operated on the Merc) is often neglected by routine servicing, Main Dealers for sure don’t remove the disc they only give the brakes a visual check on condition.
Now I know some of you may say I should have fitted new discs and pads, believe me these brakes and all the suspension components are still like new. One thing for sure is the disc will be easy to remove in future as I always put a thin film of copper grease between the surfaces and on the disc pad sliders.

While on this corner I removed the plastic wheel arch liner to inspect what it was like behind and found there was just minimal dirt which was cleaned off. I did find there was an excess of sealant on a 2” section of the wheel arch lip which prevented the liner to seat properly so rather than dig out the sealant I trimmed the plastic liner to allow it to sit perfectly.
Time allowed I will be onto the other side tomorrow, I just hope the disc doesn’t give me the same problem.
With the SL I’m fortunate to be inside my garage but soon I will have the same work to do on my CLS as it comes up for its first MOT only being on the large side it will be done outside on the driveway so I have to choose a good weather day (or two)

 

[Teego]

I do like old fashioned preventative maintenance. Of course, if you drive trucks and break down or fail tests you stop earning your living.

 

[saff]

You do the kind of maintenance I'd like to do given the time and space it would need. Let me know when you come to sell one of your cars

 

[Merc220cls]

You do the kind of maintenance I'd like to do given the time and space it would need. Let me know when you come to sell one of your cars

I sold four of my “classics” last year when I purchased the SL. My fully restored SD1 Vitesse along with loads of history went to a collector down near Bath, one of my Rover 75’s to Cornwall, the other to Glasgow and my 1994 Mini went down to Kent, all supplied with detailed folders on all the history and work done.

I’ve already compiled a fair sized folder on the SL as well as my usual “Word” diary on the PC.

Back on these brakes I’ve never had so much problem removing discs for service. I’ve finished up on the rears and now onto the front but today I had to get “Hamish” to remove the first front disc, even after an overnight soak with penetrating fluid it wasn’t going to budge but three dunts with Hamish and it was off.

I’m taking the extra time to re paint the suspension components and remove and clean up the wheel arch liners. As I said in an earlier post I tend to go a bit OTT.

BTW the last time I used Hamish was to break through a re enforced slab to gain access to a blocked drain. LoL. The extra weight behind did the job without causing any damage to the disc.

 

[saff]

I sold four of my “classics” last year when I purchased the SL. My fully restored SD1 Vitesse along with loads of history went to a collector down near Bath, one of my Rover 75’s to Cornwall, the other to Glasgow and my 1994 Mini went down to Kent, all supplied with detailed folders on all the history and work done.

I’ve already compiled a fair sized folder on the SL as well as my usual “Word” diary on the PC.

Back on these brakes I’ve never had so much problem removing discs for service. I’ve finished up on the rears and now onto the front but today I had to get “Hamish” to remove the first front disc, even after an overnight soak with penetrating fluid it wasn’t going to budge but three dunts with Hamish and it was off.

I’m taking the extra time to re paint the suspension components and remove and clean up the wheel arch liners. As I said in an earlier post I tend to go a bit OTT.

BTW the last time I used Hamish was to break through a re enforced slab to gain access to a blocked drain. LoL. The extra weight behind did the job without causing any damage to the disc.

I'm impressed!

 

[Merc220cls]

I’ve now finished with the brakes on the SL. At 10k the discs are still like new but I did remove the surface rust from the inner rime etc using a 3m blending pad I get from my son who used them for blending the fan blades on jet engines. They’re only part used when they’re discarded and received permission to bring me some. All the brake pads have still got loads of life on them and I’ve re painted the callipers with high temp silver and the suspension components in black gloss where applicable.
While the car was “up on the blocks” I decided to remove the floor under trays for inspection. Just as well as I found two of the three brackets securing the fuel lines corroded. The third one strangely was still like new, well almost but all three were removed, de rusted, primed and glossed back to silver before re fitting.

I then decided to change the oil and filter even though the car had done just 2k since the last service. This gave me piece of mind that it was the correct oil and filter in the car but I needn’t have worried as the correct filter dated 2018 was removed and the oil still looked pretty clean compared to all my previous cars at oil change.
Speaking of oil I used Mobil 1 0W/40 and got a pretty good price from Halfords using my trade card. Instead of £58 per 5 litres I paid £46.40. The filter from MB was £11.80 plus vat.
While in at MB I picked up a bargain buy, a nice shiny new AMG rear decal for £20 reduced from £56.92.
No I’m not putting it on the SL but on my CLS which is AMG design and will replace the cheap copy I fitted two years back and is already showing signs of corrosion.
All that’s to do with the SL is to re fit the front wheels but I’ve still to clean them, especially the centre caps where the central spring retainers are corroded. I’ve got them all painted up ready for refitting then I’m all ready for the MOT which I may wait until late March and put the car back on the road for 1st April.

 

[markjay]

The 20 new cars most likely to FAIL their first MOT test

Interesting read, though to my mind it says more of the owners' profiles (clueless drivers who neglect their cars) than about brand reliability.

So don't buy a used Hilux because the first owner is likely to have abused it....